Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds sues California company for 'rareseeds' trademark infringement

The Mansfield-based Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co. has sued a California company in federal court over alleged trademark infringement.

The Ozarks company, which started in 1998 and has grown to become the largest heirloom seed company in North America, says in court filings that it started using the 'rareseeds' term that same year. The lawsuit says the company filed for the rareseeds trademark in 2020 and was granted it in 2021.

"(Baker Creek) has invested large sums of money in promoting its business with the (trademark) via nationwide campaigns, especially in the online marketplace, that have spanned many years. (Baker Creek) has owned and operated rareseeds.com for many years," the suit says.

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Court documents say San Francisco-based Buy Rare Seeds Inc. is using the websites "buyrareseeds.com" and "buy-rare-seeds.com" to directly compete with Baker Creek.

"Defendants use, deliberately and maliciously, Plaintiff’s Mark to advertise and sell garden seeds within this District in direct competition with Plaintiff," the lawsuit says. "Specifically, Defendants target customers within this District via their primary websites, buyrareseeds.com and buy-rare-seeds.com, and via their online marketplaces on Facebook, Etsy, Amazon, and other online stores."

Baker Creek says that it has received angry calls from consumers expressing customer service issues, only to find out through investigation that the customers had actually been doing business with Buy Rare Seeds.

The lawsuit says Baker Creek has reached out to Buy Rare Seeds in an effort to get them to stop using the trademark, but that Buy Rare Seeds will "not engage" with Baker Creek.

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Baker Creek is asking the court to award the company "actual damages" determined by the court, profits from Buy Rare Seeds and for Buy Rare Seeds to stop using the trademark.

Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co. has more than 100 full-time employees, large warehouses and greenhouses in Mansfield and Seymour, along with Pioneer Village, which has seed and clothing stores, a restaurant, and hosts several events.

The company helped raise $1.7 million (33,000 seed sales) for Ukraine a year ago, three days after the Russian invasion. Baker Creek has also helped several local charities, including the Salvation Army.